MICHAEL BARNES
News Reporter
Last weekend marked the 20th meeting of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities Mission and Identity
Coordinators.
The two-day event took place last Friday and Saturday and was “a chance for Mission and Identity Coordinators to articulate their own university’s mission,” coordinator Maureen Waldron said. The AJCU counts 28 Jesuit colleges in the United States as members of its organization, 26 of which had a representative Mission and Identity member present at the meeting.
The weekend proved to be worthy of the 20th meeting. Waldron said the visiting coordinators were “amazed by the facilities, the hospitality and the whole experience of the Creighton community coming together for the event.”
For many of the visitors, this was their first time visiting both Creighton and Omaha.
“It was a great chance for so many people to see Creighton,” Waldron said. “Everyone got a good feel for the campus.”
The meetings were about more than just seeing the Creighton community, however. The Rev. Andy Alexander, S.J., said the whole goal of the meetings is to emphasize “how to sustain the ministry and how to apply Ignatian values into our everyday lives.”
Equally important is that the group “supports one another by supporting the common mission,” Alexander said.
Waldron noted that the participants of the meetings truly enjoy the experience and that the focus of the planning is to address “what people are looking for” when attending a meeting to converse about the mutual mission of the AJCU. She went on to say that most of the favorite activities were group discussions about things like “how do other ministers replenish themselves?” so they may continue to spread the word of the ministry.
“It is important to keep in mind each individual’s contribution to the mission,” Waldron said.
As a part of the celebration of the 20th meeting, the Rev. Jack Zuercher, S.J., a key figure in the founding of the now annual meetings, provided a video introduction to the ceremony. In addition, a number of the members of the Jesuit community of Xavier, who were also instrumental in the ongoing success of the annual meetings, gave speeches about the importance of the ongoing implementation of each university’s mission.
The ultimate goal of the AJCU Mission and Identity Coordinators is to serve the faculty and staff.
The hope is that the mission, which is passed on to the staff, will be given to the students.
“It all comes back to the students,” Alexander said.
“Education is not pouring information into empty heads,” Alexander said. “It is about creating a full person, immersing them in the world around them, and giving them the experience and type of reflection they need to find God in all things.”
The AJCU meets every year to help create an environment to promote the Ignatian values that define the mission of not just Creighton but all of the Jesuit colleges around the country.